Text:

Afro-American HistoryJanuary 24, 1965. New York, NY. This is a transcript of a meeting in the Audobon Ballroom.

Audio:

Ballot or the BulletApril 12, 1964. Detroit, MI. This is a 18:33 minute recording, the file size is 25.5 MB.

"I don't believe in fighting today in any one front, but on all fronts. In fact I'm a Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter. Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business.... The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community."

"This government has failed us, the government itself has failed us. The white liberals, who have been posing as our friends, have failed us. Once we see that all these other sources to which we've turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self-help program, a do it yourself philosophy, a do it right now philosophy, an it's already too late philosophy. This is what you and I need to get with... Black Nationalism is a self-help philosophy... this is a philosophy that eliminates the necessity for division and argument."

"Oh, I say you've been misled, you've been had, you've been took. I was in Washington a couple of weeks ago while [democratic] senators were filibustering, and I noticed in the back of the Senate a huge map. On this map it showed the distribution of Negroes in America, and surprisingly the same senators that were involved in the filibuster were from the states where there were the most Negroes. Why were they filibustering the civil-rights legislation? Because the civil-rights legislation is supposed to guarantee voting rights to Negroes in those states, and those senators from those states know that if Negroes in those states can vote, those senators are down the drain. The representatives of those states go down the drain. In the Constitution of this country, it has a stipulation wherein whenever the rights, the voting rights of people, in a certain district are violated, then the representative who is from that particular district, according to the Constitution, is supposed to be expelled from the Congress. Now if this particular aspect of the Constitution was enforced, why you wouldn't have a cracker in Washington D.C. But what would happen? When you expel the Dixiecrat, you're expelling the Democrat. When you destroy the power of the Dixiecrat, you're destroying the power of the Democratic Party. So how in the world can the Democratic Party of the South actually side with you, in sincerity, when all it's power is based in the South?"

"Brothers and sisters, if you and I would just realize, that once we learn to talk the language that they understand, they will then get the point. You can't ever reach a man if you don't speak his language. If a man speaks the language of brute force, you can't come to him with peace. Why goodnight! He'll break you in two, as he has been doing all along. If a man speaks French, you can't speak to him in German. If he speaks Swahili, you can't communicate with him in Chinese. You have to find out, what does this man speak? Once you know his language, learn how to speak his language. He'll get the point, there will be some dialogue, some communication, and some understanding will be developed. You've been in this country long enough to know the language the Klan speaks, they only know one language. What you and I have to start doing in 1965, I mean that's what you have to do because most of us have already been doing it, is start learning a new language. Learn the language that they understand, and then when they come up on our door step to talk, we can talk."

".... It is a duty, it is your and my duty, as men, as human beings, it's our duty to our people, to organize ourselves. Let the government know if they don't stop that Klan, we'll stop it ourselves. Then you'll see the government start doing something about it. But don't ever think they are going to do it on some morality basis, no. So I don't believe in violence, that's why I want to stop it."

"When we look at other parts of this Earth upon which we live, we find that black, brown, red, and yellow people in Africa and Asia are getting their Independence. They are not getting it by singing "We shall over come." No, they are getting it through Nationalism. It is Nationalism that brought about the independance of the people in Asia.... and it will take Black Nationalism to bring about the freedom of 22 million Afro-Americans here in this country where we have suffered colonialism for the past 400 years...."

"I am not a Republican nor a Democrat, nor an American, and got sense enough to know it. I am one of the 22 million Black victims of the Democrats, and one of the 22 million Black victims of the Republicans, and one of the 22 million Black victims of Americanism.... You and I have never seen Democracy, all we've seen is hypocracy.... If you go to jail, so what. If you are Black, you were born in jail. If you are Black, you were born in jail, in the North as well as the South. Stop talking about the South. As long as you are South of the Canadian border, you are South."

You got a bad habit. Your hooked and don't know it. You got what's known as "White's Disease". You think you can't get along without the white man. You think you can't get some clothes without the white man. You think you can't get a house without the white man. You think you can't even get a job without the white man. Your worse than the man who thinks he can't get along without heroin. Your worse than the man who thinks he can't get along without morphine. Your worse than the junkie, you're in worse shape than the junkie because, the junkie only has a little monkey on his back and your running around with a big white ape named Uncle Sam on your back.

Look at the American Revolution, in 1776. That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. Number one, it was based on land, the basis of independence, and the only way they could get it, was bloodshed. The French Revolution, what was it based on  the landless against the landlord. What was it for? Land! How did they get it? Bloodshed! There was no love lost, was no compromise, was no negotiation. I'm telling you you don't know what a revolution is, because when you find out you'll get back in the alley, you'll get out of the way. The Russian Revolution. What was it based on? Land  the landless against the landlord. How did they bring it about? Bloodshed. You haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed, and you're afraid to bleed. [Commotion] I said you are afraid to bleed. As long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people, but when it comes time to seeing your own churches being bombed, and little black girls [Speak on!] murdered, you haven't got no blood.

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This black man was shot through the heart by Police men in Los Angeles, California, and they are dumb enough to think we have forgotten it. Well, a Muslim never forgets. You don't kill our brother! We don't never forget! You don't shoot one of us and then grin in our face. You don't shoot one of us and then shake our hands and think we'd forget it. No, we never forget, we'll never forget! Someone has to pay. Somewhere, somehow, someone has to pay. When a snake bites your children, you don't go and look for the snake that has blood on it's jaws, any old snake will do. Any old snake will do! .... I'm telling you, the only way you get justice is in the street. The only way you get justice is in the sidewalk. The only way you get justice is when you make justice for yourself.

Student's all over the world today are standing up for their rights and fighting for their rights, but here in America, the so-called Negro students have allowed themselves to be maneuvered under a tag of "sit-in". The word sit itself is not an honorable tag, anybody can sit, and old woman can sit, a coward can sit, a baby can sit, anything can sit, but it takes a man to stand.... Rather than to force our way into someone else's restaurant or public place that they have established, we should get our own. Once we have our own, we're respected for the fact that we can create our own. That's equality right there.